As a freshman I was practically a stenographer in each of my five classes. I read hundreds of assigned pages for my History of the Jewish People course. I worked on every practice problem for Accounting. But here’s the problem: I wasn’t getting A’s. It wasn't until second semester sophomore year that I figured out the system and by graduation, I earned a beautiful 3.7 GPA. To get there though, I had to learn the hard way. Let me save you some time and clue you in to three strategies for getting an A: